Crown Heights an Island for Trump Amid Sea of Clinton Supporters

Within a sea of dark blue favoring Hillary Clinton, a small section of Crown Heights went red this election season, throwing support to Donald Trump within about a dozen square blocks, an analysis of polling data shows.

The Republican-majority area corresponds with the Lubavitch Jewish community, centered around Kingston Avenue and anchored by the Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue and headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway.

The Hasidic community has lived in the area for decades and often votes Republican, according to Yaacov Behrman, a Lubavitcher and local activist who has worked with local Brooklyn Democrats.

To him, the difference between Clinton and Trump for many in the community came down to the latter’s close ties to Lubavitch Crown Heights and his unequivocal support for Israel.

“Crown Heights believes in a strong Israel,” he said. “Even though Clinton also is considered a friend [to Israel] … his campaign pledges in terms of support for Israel are unprecedented.”

A clear connection between the Republican candidate and the Lubavitch community — through his son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka, who visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave last weekend, and Rudy Giuliani, who is “loved” and trusted by the Hasidic community in the neighborhood, he said — helped, too.

“People feel safe knowing that Trump’s immediate circle has roots in our community and friendships in our community,” Behrman said.

In the 24 blocks at the heart of the Lubavitch community (between New York and Troy avenues from Eastern Parkway to Empire Boulevard), Trump received a majority of the vote in 14 blocks and between 35 and 50 percent in another 7 blocks.

The outcome doesn’t surprise Mendy Raitport, a longtime Crown Heights resident and Kingston Avenue butcher who has run for local office multiple times as a Republican. He said he prayed for Trump to win not because he was a perfect candidate, but because he couldn’t imagine Clinton, who “lied to everybody again and again,” in the White House.

“Would I always vote for him? No. But at this time in history, I think he’s the best person for the job,” he said.

The returns in the Hasidic area of Crown heights are in sharp contrast to the rest of the neighborhood, where support for the Republican was nearly non-existent.

Most other election districts in the area reported single-digit returns for Trump and, on one block — between Dean and Bergen streets and New York and Nostrand avenues — not a single person voted for him; 229 out of 230 voters on the block chose Clinton, according to the data. The 230th person chose the Green Party’s candidate, Jill Stein.

2.Districts wrote:

Actually it is possible. They way it is broken down is that every few blocks is zoned as its own “electoral district” and the data merely represents who within that district voted for whom – without identifying the individual voter.

Another data-point that can be seen is the amount of registered voters within the district and how many of them actually voted. Which is how politicians determine the value of a community’s voting power and turnout.

This is the closest thing short of actually identifying individual voters.

3.To "District" wrote:

While your second paragraph makes sense and that’s how it is indeed done, your first paragraph says this: “who within that district voted for whom – without identifying the individual voter” that’s a contradiction. Again, it’s impossible to know who in any district voted for whom. Only which candidate won the majority of a given district.

4.Milhouse wrote:

The map doesn’t claim to say how each person voted, it says how each election district voted. How would they not know that? An election district is about 700-1000 people, or 1-3 blocks. The graph is not speculation, it’s the exact numbers gathered directly from the official count. It doesn’t include absentee ballots, which are counted separately.

6.Milhouse wrote:

7.shocked wrote:

how in the world in a shchuna of lubivitcher chsidim and african americans are basicly the whole population can it be that donald trump was being voted in this city? can it be that yiden are c”v voting do they not understand that they are wasting precious time going to 770 for example, and my only hope is that i was the only yid that voted

8.Milhouse wrote:

9.DeClasse' Intellectual wrote:

the result is no big surprise. Clinton and her promise to continue the Obama legacy supports values and actions which are a complete antithesis of what Orthodox Jewry holds as basic principles. Of course, she no role model to look up to for inspiration owing to the ongoing investigations into her violations of policies, lies and corruption both her actions and the record of the Clinton foundation as well as George Soros influence in said foundation.